These past few days have been strangely disconcerting for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. It's not just the weather but that's definitely played a factor. Consider the evidence:
From what I can tell, a million Sho Dozono and Sam Adams signs mysteriously popped up on just about every lawn in the city over the weekend. One yard I spotted even had two signs sitting side-by-side, one for each of the mayoral candidates.
A 30-minute hailstorm slammed my neighborhood late yesterday afternoon, botching an ill-conceived family jaunt to Tad's Chicken and Dumplings. When the car slid sideways while going up a hill we retreated back to O'Connors in Multnomah Village. Their sausage and chicken gumbo is pretty tasty.
While driving home tonight I encountered a gigantic Spirit Mountain Casino billboard advertising upcoming shows for Dana Carvey and Blues Traveler. While the glory days of both acts may be long gone, aren't all involved too young to go on the casino circuit? I thought you had to be over 60 to play a gig in a place like that. Blues Traveler may even have a few members of its original lineup still playing in the band. Smash Mouth is coming in April? OK, I guess the rules regarding these things have changed.
Or maybe my uneasy feelings all have to do with the fact that I saw one of this guy's ads on TV last night:
Vern Fonk, the Seattle-based insurance agent, now has a location in Portland. Oh well, his ads (only click on that link if you're willing to lose 10 - 20 minutes of your valuable time) are a lot easier to take than those old short-term loan commercials with the dancing giraffe.
On second thought, I'd go so far to say the one linked above has set the bar for all future locally-based advertising. Doc hitting Marty with the Delorian, that's downright inspired. Even Mr. Appliance never thought of that.
